Monday, September 21, 2009

Hispanic Creative Advertising Awards 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The best Hispanic advertising this year cleverly mined cultural insights into Latinos in the U.S. without resorting to stereotypes.

In one of the judges' favorite campaigns entered in Advertising Age's Hispanic Creative Advertising Awards, Comcast's CableLatino and Grupo Gallegos entertainingly demonstrated that if you don't watch TV in your own language, you lose too much of the story. To drive that point home, English-language newscasts were devised with crucial information, like the photograph of an escaped killer or product shots of poisoned food brands, hidden by subtitles.

"It's all about insights into the Spanish-speaking viewer," says Peter Intermaggio, Comcast's senior VP-marketing communications, and one of the four courageous clients who partner with their Hispanic shops on award-winning work (CableLatino won two Golds and a Silver prize). "An essential truth of the Hispanic market is that the viewing experience can be very frustrating, obscured by language difficulties and poor translation. The creative captured that experience."

Other insights were crafted into the two Best of Show winners. From LatinWorks for Cine Las Americas: Latin American reality is so surreal, imagine how good the movies must be. And from Lapiz for Procter & Gamble's Pepto-Bismol: Don't let the food you love hurt you.

This year's winners understand the value of marketing to Hispanics, whether it's the NFL working with Vidal Partnership to court 28 million Hispanic football fans, or the California Milk Processor Board, a dairy supplier in a state where "10 out of 10 new households created will be Hispanic," said John Gallegos, principal at Grupo Gallegos. New advertisers are still entering the market, including Starbucks, with its first Spanish-language print and radio ads from Lopez Negrete Communications.